Peripheral and gastrointestinal immune systems of healthy cattle raised outdoors at pasture or indoors on a concentrate-based ration

Table 2 Total and differential leukocyte counts.

Item	Reference range	Summer		Winter		Pvalue
		Outdoor	Indoor	Outdoor	Indoor	Production system, P	Season, S	P × S
WBC (×10⁹/L)	4.00 - 12.00	10.41 ± 0.50	9.91 ± 0.53	10.67 ± 0.50	10.01 ± 0.50	0.416	0.712	0.726
Lymphocytes (×10⁹/L)	2.50 - 7.50	6.04 ± 0.17	5.82 ± 0.16	6.17 ± 0.17	5.75 ± 0.16	0.914	0.617	0.725
Neutrophils (×10⁹/L)	0.60 - 4.00	3.79 ± 0.16	3.53 ± 0.15	3.63 ± 0.17	3.56 ± 0.15	0.742	0.491	0.518
Eosinophils (×10⁹/L)	0.10 - 1.70	0.46 ± 0.04	0.56 ± 0.04	0.72 ± 0.04	0.63 ± 0.04	0.035	0.464	0.030

Total and differential leukocyte counts from indoor and outdoor animals during summer and winter. Values are depicted as mean ± SEM. P value for the effects of the production system (P), season (S) and production system × season (P × S) interaction are indicated. Physiological reference ranges were indicated according to Knowles et al. [20].

ISSN: 1746-6148